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The return : a novel

"The real Richard Marder would shock his acquaintances, if they ever met him. Marder is perfectly comfortable keeping his true self a secret from his clients, his friends and his daughter. Even his wife, long dead, didn't know the real man behind the calm, cultured mask he presents to the world. Only an old army buddy from Vietnam, Patrick Francis Skelly, knows what Marder is capable of. Then, a shattering piece of news awakens Marder's buried desire for vengeance; with nothing left to lose, he sets off to punish the people whose actions, years earlier, changed his life. Uninvited, Skelly shows up and the two of them together raise the stakes far beyond anything Marder could have envisioned. As Marder and Skelly set out on the road, headed toward an apocalypse of their own making, Marder learns that good motives and sense of justice can't always protect the people a man loves. A range of fearsomely real characters, from a brutally violent crime lord to a daringly courageous young woman, a roller-coaster of twists and turns, and a shattering exploration of what constitutes morality in the face of evil, Michael Gruber has once more proven that he is "a gifted and natural storyteller" (Chicago Tribune) and shows why he has been called "the Stephen King of crime writing." (Denver Post). If Jack Reacher and George Smiley met, this is the adventure that would result"--Read more...

Abstract:

"The real Richard Marder would shock his acquaintances, if they ever met him. Marder is perfectly comfortable keeping his true self a secret from his clients, his friends and his daughter. Even his wife, long dead, didn't know the real man behind the calm, cultured mask he presents to the world. Only an old army buddy from Vietnam, Patrick Francis Skelly, knows what Marder is capable of. Then, a shattering piece of news awakens Marder's buried desire for vengeance; with nothing left to lose, he sets off to punish the people whose actions, years earlier, changed his life. Uninvited, Skelly shows up and the two of them together raise the stakes far beyond anything Marder could have envisioned. As Marder and Skelly set out on the road, headed toward an apocalypse of their own making, Marder learns that good motives and sense of justice can't always protect the people a man loves. A range of fearsomely real characters, from a brutally violent crime lord to a daringly courageous young woman, a roller-coaster of twists and turns, and a shattering exploration of what constitutes morality in the face of evil, Michael Gruber has once more proven that he is "a gifted and natural storyteller" (Chicago Tribune) and shows why he has been called "the Stephen King of crime writing." (Denver Post). If Jack Reacher and George Smiley met, this is the adventure that would result"--